Friday, June 6, 2014

The top three Red Sox draft picks

RED SOX SELECT
SHORTSTOP MICHAEL CHAVIS

WITH FIRST PICK (26th
OVERALL) IN 2014 JUNE DRAFT

Club Also Takes
Right-Handed Pitcher Michael Kopech in First Round

And First
Baseman Sam Travis in Second Round on Day 1 of the Draft

BOSTON, MA—The Boston Red
Sox selected shortstop Michael Chavis out of Sprayberry High School Marietta,
GA with their first-round pick (26th overall) in the 2014 June Draft
on Thursday night. The club also took right-handed pitcher Michael Kopech
from Mt. Pleasant High School in Texas in the first round (33rd
overall, compensation for Jacoby Ellsbury), and first baseman Sam Travis from
Indiana University with their second-round selection (67th
overall).

Chavis, 18, hit .580 (47-for-81)
with nine doubles, one triple, 13 home runs, 37 RBI, and 21 stolen bases in 28
games, leading Sprayberry High School to an 18-11 overall record and this
spring’s 7AAAAA regional championship. A 5-foot-10, 190-pound right-handed
hitter, he was named the 2014 Georgia Gatorade High School Player of the Year
and also earned Southeast All-Region First-Team designation. Named a
Perfect Game First-Team All-American, he won this year’s Home Run Derby at the
Perfect Game All-American Classic. Baseball America identified him
as the top potential third base prospect available in the draft. He was
also named to the Perfect Game Underclassmen First Team in 2013. Chavis
is just the second high school infielder Boston has selected with its No. 1
pick since 1983, with the other being right-handed pitcher/shortstop Casey
Kelly in 2008. Notable major leaguers that attended Sprayberry High
School are right-handed pitcher Kris Benson and outfielder Marlon Byrd.

“Our approach each year is to
select the best players available to us and we believe Michael fits that
description,” said Sawdaye. “He was undoubtedly one of the best high school
hitters in this this year’s class, and we were fortunate to have him. In
addition, we believe his athleticism and defensive versatility will also be an
asset to us.”

Kopech, 18, went 3-0 with a 0.44
ERA and a .115 opponent batting average over 11 appearances this season for Mt.
Pleasant. He allowed only four earned runs, 25 hits, and 18 walks all
season, and tied for the lead Division 4A pitchers with 129 strikeouts in just
64.0 innings pitched. The 6-foot-3, 195-pound native of Mt. Pleasant also
played shortstop for the Tigers. This year he was named a First Team
Perfect Game All-American and also earned a spot on Perfect Game’s Texas-Region
First Team. He struck out all three batters faced in his only inning of
work during the 2013 Under Armour All-American Game at Wrigley Field and was
named the exhibition’s Player of the Game.

Travis, 22, hit .347 (85-for-245)
as a junior this season with 16 doubles, two triples, 12 home runs, 58 RBI, and
25 walks in 59 games for Indiana University. A First-Team All-Big Ten
selection and Second Team Louisville Slugger All-American in 2014, he led the
team in hits, doubles (tied), and RBI, and helped the Hoosiers to the Big Ten
Championship and their first College World Series appearance. As a
sophomore in 2013, the right-handed batter ranked second on the team in on-base
percentage (.419), home runs (10), and RBI (57), and hit .316 (77-for-244) with
39 walks in 65 games, earning Most Outstanding Player honors at the Big Ten
Tournament as well as the NCAA Bloomington Regional. The 6-foot,
210-pound first baseman played in 19 games for Team USA’s Collegiate National
Team in 2013 and was a Cape Cod League All-Star with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red
Sox in the summer of 2012. Travis, a native of Orland Park, IL, was named
Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American in
2012. He was named The Chicago Tribune’s Illinois Player of the
Year as a senior at Providence Catholic High School in 2011 and was selected by
the Cincinnati Reds in the 40th round of the 2011 June Draft but
chose not to sign.

About Me

Why another blog? Why another site that will largely be Red Sox-oriented?
Quite a few of my books are out of print. This blog should help keep them available.
I still keep active writing and editing books and brief biographies for SABR (Society for American Baseball Research), and have written over 350 bios of Red Sox players. They’re available on the SABR site, and through Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com, but this site lets me group them all together in a way that features the Red Sox bios.
The Red Sox themselves have been very generous with access to the park, to games, and to historical photographs, and even hired me as a consultant to help with the planning for the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park and to write much of the material for the Fenway 100 website.
If this site is successful – both the blog and the building historical record – it should encourage me to continue to add material on an ongoing basis. That’s how I’ll measure the success of the site: is it something that will keep me contributing?